Cheesy Potato Soup

I came across a recipe in my Soup of the Day cookbook for Potato, spinach au-gratin Soup. Oh this sounded good, it got me thinking and I new I had to have a yummy potato spinach and cheese soup. I didn’t like all the cream in the given recipe so I went and did my own thing.

Ingredients:
~5 cups cubed potatoes
~2 cups chicken stock
1 cup chopped ham
2 cups chopped fresh baby spinach
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1 cup milk (I used 1%, but I am sure any type of milk will work)
¾ cup grated old chedder
Salt
Pepper

Directions:
1. Place the potatoes into pot and just cover with the chicken stock. Cover and simmer over medium heat until the potatoes are tender.
2. As the potatoes are finishing cooking start making the cheese sauce by melting the butter in a separate pot. Once the butter is melted whisk in the flour. Slowly add the milk while whisking and let heat over medium heat until thick. Add the cheese to the white sauce and let melt.
3. Once the potatoes are tender, mash about 1/3 of the potatoes into the broth. Then pour in the cheese sauce and stir. Add the ham, spinach, salt and pepper.
4. Leave on the stove until the soup is heated through and the spinach is tender.
5. Serve.

Reviews:
This was an extremely yummy soup and the leftover were great as well. I look forward to trying this again with onions and bacon!

Carrot Cake

This year was great for carrots, and as I was on a roll with the baking, Mom requested a carrot cake. No problem I though and pulled up a couple of recipes, she then informed me that she wasn’t a fan of the recipes with pineapple, she wanted one with just carrots. Well that made things more interesting. Allrecipes came to the rescue and I ended up with a great cake.

Carrot Cake Adapted from Allrecipes
INGREDIENTS
4 eggs
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 cups grated carrots


1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened (room temperature)
1/2 cup butter, softened
3 cups confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt


DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan.
2. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, white sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in carrots. Pour into prepared pan.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

Note for all you nut lovers out there, you can add 1 cup of pecans to the batter when you add the carrots, and you can add some to the frosting if you like. I did not do this, as my family isn’t a big fan of nuts in their baking.

To Make Frosting: In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar, salt and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Do not frost until the cake is completely cool.

REVIEWS:
I halved this recipe as we already had a chocolate beet cake and multigrain cinnamon buns around the house, It made a lovely small cake that is a great option for when you just need a bit of cake.

My mother really enjoyed this cake and happily took it along to share with friends at a party that night. Owen managed to sneak a piece and while carrot cake isn’t his favorite he had no problem eating it and trying for more.

Chocolate Beet Cake

I have a confession – I am not a fan of beets. No matter how many times I try them, I just don’t like them. So this year, my mother as usual ended up with an abundance of beets in her garden. After helping with a couple batches of pickled beets, we were both done with the canning. Still having a sink full of beets however, we had to think of something. I did a little searching and came across Chocolate Beet Cake on Straight from the Farm. Hmmmmm, chocolate – I do love chocolate. Could this be the answer to my aversion to beets – sneek them into a chocolate cake?

I got to work pureering beets, hunting chocolate out of the cupboards and mixed up the cake.

CHOCOLATE BEET CAKE
vAdapted Straight from the Farm
1 c. margarine, softened, divided

1 1/2 c. packed dark brown sugar

3 eggs at room temp

3 oz. dark chocolate

5 medium beets/2 c. pureed beets

1 t. vanilla extract

2 c. all-purpose flour

2 t. baking soda

1/4 t. salt

1/2 t. cinnamon

1/4 t. nutmeg

confectioners’ sugar for dusting
 


To make beet puree,
1. trim stems and roots off beets and place in heavy sauce pan filled with water.
2. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer for 50 mins or until the beets are tender.
3. Drain off remaining liquid and rinse beets in cold water as they’ll be too hot to handle otherwise. Slide skins off, quarter the beets and place in blender or food processor. Pulse until a smooth puree forms. Let cool slightly before using in cake. Puree can be made several days in advance.
To Make the cake:
1. In a mixing bowl, cream 3/4 cup butter and brown sugar.
2. Add eggs; mix well.
3. Melt chocolate with remaining butter; stir until smooth. Cool slightly.
4. Blend chocolate mixture, beets and vanilla into the creamed mixture (mixture may appear separated).
5. Combine flour, baking soda , salt, cinnamon and nutmeg; add to the creamed mixture and mix well.
6. Pour into a greased and floured 10-in. spring form pan.
7. Bake at 375 degrees F for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
8. Cool in pan 15 minutes before removing to a wire rack.
9. Cool completely before dusting with confectioners’ sugar.

Reviews:
The cake came out really nice, with a slight red color to it, which I found really cute and appealing. So this cake was a great texture, really moist but not too dense. I loved that about the cake. The beet flavour was subtle, but sadly so was the chocolate. Next time I make this cake, there will be more chocolate!

Vegetable Soup

It got cold out and I wanted a nice bowl of something hearty and warm. I got the vegetables chopped and put in the pan, then I lost all desire to continue cooking, and decided to forgo making a stew and switch to a soup. The end result was a delicious soup that cost us less than $2 for supper and my lunch the following day.
If you have a garden, most of the ingredients for this soup can come directly from there. Thanks to my mother’s large garden, most of this soup was homegrown.
Ingredients:
4 to 5 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped.
2 to 3 carrots (I used about 6 smaller carrots from the garden), peeled and chopped
½ medium onion chopped
2-3 stalks of celery chopped
2 cups fresh baby spinach (chopped)
3 cups water (enough to cover the vegetables) or vegetable broth
3 tsp vegetable bullion
2-3 tbsp Italian seasoning

Directions:
1. Add the potatoes, carrots, celery and onion to a pot and cover with water and add the bullion (if you are using vegetable broth, do not add the bullion). Season with any wanted salt and pepper and the Italian seasoning. Allow the soup to simmer, covered, until the vegetables are cooked.
2. When ready to serve, put spinach in the bottom of a bowl and ladel the hot soup into the bowl. The hot liquid will quickly soften the spinach.
3. Enjoy!


Reviews:
This was a great light soup and quick to make. I really enjoyed it, and look forward to making it again.

BBQ Dinner #1

For the entire weekend the kitchen had been taken over by the jam making and various other fruit adventures, so we ate cooked our suppers on the BBQ. This is one of the meals that we did that weekend:

1. Home made venison sausage - my parents make this every year, and it is great - maybe this year I will actually remember to do a post about it.
2. Grilled Corn on the cob - recipe below
3. Vegetable grill - we picked the zucchini out of the garden that day and couldn't wait to eat it, recipe below.
4. Dessert was smores, mmmm mmmm good - how to below.

Grilled Corn:
!. Peel down the corn husks but do not remove. Remove the silk and soak the corn and husks in cold water for at least 15 minutes.
2. Remove the corn from the water and brush with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and pull the husks back over. Tie the husks closed with a stray piece of husk.
3. Place on a heated grill and grill for about 15 minutes, turning every 3-4 minutes.


Vegetable Grill:
1. wash and chop the vegetables in large chunks. (We used small to med. Zucchini, green pepper, red pepper, yellow pepper and asparagus - which was my favorite).
2. Toss the vegetables with olive oil to coat, and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.
3. Put on a BBQ vegetable grill and place on the heated BBQ, cooking until the veggies are crisp tender. Don't forget to stir the vegetables occasionally during cooking.



Smores on the Grill:
1. Create a smore by stacking graham cracker, milk chocolate, a large marshmallow, and topping it with another graham cracker.
2. Wrap teh smore with tinfoil tightly so it all holds together.
3. Place the smores on the BBQ over low heat. Leave until the squish down when you press lightly on the top. Don't leave them on too long, or on high heat as you don't want to burn the chocolate. They should take no longer than 2 minutes.
4. Unwrap and enjoy!


This dinner was delicious and amazingly I ended up with no leftovers!

Summer Garden Pasta

Alright, so I know I haven't put up anything other than baking for quite some time - I swear I am cooking things other than brownies and cupcakes! Well summer is here, and I was a little anxious for the light summer foods, so I got a bunch veggies when I went to the market and then had decide what to do with them. I found this recipe for Summer Garden Pasta, and decided to modify it my needs.

Summer Garden Pasta al la Vikki

16 ounces bowtie pasta
1 small to medium zucchini sliced
2 small to medium green peppers
1 medium to large red pepper
1/2 medium oinion finely chopped
2 tsp minced garlic
2 tpsp butter
1/2 a tomato chopped
1 1/2 cups reduced sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon salt

Cook pasta according to package directions, when al dente drain and set aside. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, saute the zucchini, peppers, onions and garlic in butter until crisp-tender.
Add both and tomato; bring to a boil. Cook and stir until liquid is reduced by half.
Stir the pasta into vegetable mixture. Cook 1 minutes longer or until heated through. Transfer to a large bowl. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and salt; toss to coat. Serve immediately.

Reviews:
I thought this was great, it was nice and light with a good sumer feel to it. Owen liked it, but of course thought it could use a little meat or something more. He did enjoy it though, and finished up the leftovers (it made a lot of food, so I actually had leftovers!).